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Jankovic, Venus reach third round at French Open

Thu 29th, May 2008

Paris, France (Sports Network) - Third-seeded Serb Jelena Jankovic and Wimbledon champion Venus Williams were a pair of second-round winners Thursday at the 2008 French Open.

Rain fell again here on Thursday, as inclement weather affected play on three out of the first five days of the fortnight.

The 2007 Roland Garros semifinalist Jankovic topped New Zealand's Marina Erakovic 6-2, 7-6 (7-5), while the eighth-seeded Williams handled Tunisian qualifier Selima Sfar 6-2, 6-4 on Day 5 at this Parisian Grand Slam.

Jankovic, who was a big clay-court titlist in Berlin earlier this month, played through some pain against Erakovic, as she was slowed by a right arm injury.

"It started gradually, little by little," said Jankovic, who refused to have her arm wrapped by a trainer. The Serbian star said she didn't "want tape because I cannot play with tape."

Jankovic will tangle with rising Slovakian Dominika Cibulkova in the third round on Friday.

The six-time major titlist and former world No. 1 Williams, the 2002 French Open runner-up to her younger sister Serena, was both healthy and solid on Thursday.

"I played well and I just tried to improve literally on every point I'm playing out there, just to play better every point, play better every match," Williams said following her easy second-round victory.

Williams will meet Italian Flavia Pennetta on Friday.

A match between world No. 1 Maria Sharapova and American Bethanie Mattek wound up being suspended because of darkness, with the big Russian leading 6-2, 2-3 when the action was halted for the day. Sharapova is a three-time Grand Slam champion, including this year's Aussie Open title, and needs the French Open to complete a career Grand Slam.

Former French Open runner-up Svetlana Kuznetsova breezed past American Vania King 6-4, 6-2. The fourth-seeded Russian is a former U.S. Open champion, was the U.S. Open runner-up last year and reached the Roland Garros finale in 2006.

Heavy French crowd favorite Amelie Mauresmo was sent packing on Thursday, as the former top-ranked star and two-time Grand Slam champion succumbed to Spanish qualifier Carla Suarez Navarro 6-3, 6-4. Mauresmo has never advanced beyond the quarterfinals at her home major and has bowed out in the first or second round here seven times in 14 trips.

Seventh-seeded Russian Elena Dementieva moved into the third round with a 6-1, 6-4 victory over Poland's Marta Domachowska, while 12th-seeded Hungarian Agnes Szavay bested German Sabine Lisicki 7-6 (7-0), 6-3 and 13th-seeded Russian Dinara Safina swatted Slovakian qualifier Magdalena Rybarikova 6-0, 6-1. Dementieva, last week;s runner-up in Istanbul, was a two-time major finalist back in 2004, including a runner-up finish here in Paris.

A top-10 upset occurred when Estonian Kaia Kanepi took out sixth-seeded Russian Anna Chakvetadze, a quarterfinalist here a year ago, 6-4, 7-6 (7-2), while 16th-seeded Belarusian Victoria Azarenka avoided an upset by destroying Romanian Sorana Cirstea 6-0, 6-0.

Eighteenth-seeded Italian Francesca Schiavone shut down Croat Sanda Mamic 6-3, 6-0; 19th-seeded Frenchwoman Alize Cornet topped Argentine Gisela Dulko 6-0, 4-6, 6-4; Chinese qualifier Jie Zheng upended 21st-seeded Russian Maria Kirilenko 4-6, 6-3, 6-2; a 26th-seeded Pennetta overcame Russian qualifier Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 3-6, 6-1, 6-1; 27th-seeded Slovenian Katarina Srebotnik beat Russian Ekaterina Makarova 6-0, 7-5; a 28th-seeded Cibulkova whipped Venezuelan Milagros Sequera 6-3, 6-0; 29th-seeded Spaniard Anabel Medina Garrigues came back to beat Bulgarian Tsvetana Pironkova 4-6, 6-3, 6-1; and 32nd-seeded Italian Karin Knapp beat French wild card Olivia Sanchez 6-2, 7-6 (7-4) on the famed red clay here. Medina Garrigues beat Srebotnik in last week's clay-court finale in Strasbourg. Srebotnik is rewarded with a third- round match Friday against fifth-seeded Serena Williams, the only former champion in this year's women's draw.

A very mild Day-5 upset came when Belarusian Olga Govortsova grounded 31st- seeded Japanese Ai Sugiyama 6-0, 7-5.

Additional second-round wins came for Aussie Casey Dellacqua, Czechs Iveta Benesova, a qualifier, Petra Cetkovska and Petra Kvitova, and Canadian Aleksandra Wozniak.

Another third-round match on Friday will pit second-seeded Serbian Ana Ivanovic against 30th-seeded Dane Caroline Wozniacki. Ivanovic was last year's French Open runner-up to Justine Henin and this year's Aussie Open runner-up to Sharapova.

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